Rifaximin (INN; see The Merck Index, XIII Ed., 8304) is an antibiotic belonging to the rifamycin class, exactly it is a pyrido-imidazo rifamycin described and claimed in Italian Patent IT 1154655, while European Patent EP 0161534 describes and claims a process for its production starting from rifamycin O (The Merck Index, XIII Ed., 8301).
Both these patents describe the purification of rifaximin in a generic way stating that crystallization can be carried out in suitable solvents or solvent systems and summarily showing in some examples that the reaction product can be crystallized from the 7:3 mixture of ethyl alcohol/water and can be dried both under atmospheric pressure and under vacuum without specifying in any way either the experimental conditions of crystallization and drying, or any distinctive crystallographic characteristic of the obtained product.
The presence of different polymorphs had just not been noticed and therefore the experimental conditions described in both patents had been developed with the goal to get a homogeneous product having a suitable purity from the chemical point of view, independent from the crystallographic aspects of the product itself.
It has now been found, unexpectedly, that there are several polymorphous forms whose formation, besides the solvent, depends on time and temperature conditions under which both crystallization and drying are carried out.
In the present application, these orderly polymorphous forms will be, later on, conventionally identified as rifaximin α (FIG. 1) and rifaximin β (FIG. 2) on the basis of their respective specific diffractograms, while the poorly crystalline form with a high content of amorphous component will be identified as rifaximin γ (FIG. 3).
Rifaximin polymorphous forms have been characterized through the technique of the powder X-ray diffraction.
The identification and characterization of these polymorphous forms and, simultaneously, the definition of the experimental conditions for obtaining them is very important for a compound endowed with pharmacological activity which, like rifaximin, is marketed as medicinal preparation, both for human and veterinary use. In fact it is known that the polymorphism of a compound that can be used as active ingredient contained in a medicinal preparation can influence the pharmaco-toxicologic properties of the drug. Different polymorphous forms of an active ingredient administered as drug under oral or topical form can modify many properties thereof like bioavailability, solubility, stability, colour, compressibility, flowability and workability with consequent modification of the profiles of toxicological safety, clinical effectiveness and productive efficiency.
What mentioned above is confirmed by the fact that the authorities that regulate the grant of marketing authorization of the drugs market require that the manufacturing methods of the active ingredients are standardized and controlled in such a way that they give homogeneous and sound results in terms of polymorphism of production batches (CPMP/QWP/96, 2003—Note for Guidance on Chemistry of new Active Substance; CPMP/ICH/367/96—Note for guidance specifications: test procedures and acceptance criteria for new drug substances and new drug products: chemical substances; Date for coming into operation: May 2000).
The need for the above-mentioned standardization has further been strengthened in the field of the rifamycin antibiotics by Henwood S. Q., de Villiers M. M., Liebenberg W. and Lötter A. P., Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy, 26 (4), 403-408, (2000), who have ascertained that different production batches of the rifampicin (INN) made from different manufacturers differ from each other in that they show different polymorphous characteristics, and as a consequence they show different dissolution profiles, along with a consequent alteration of the respective pharmacological properties.
By applying the crystallization and drying processes generically disclosed in the previous patents IT 1154655 and EP 0161534 it has been found that under some experimental conditions a poorly crystalline form of rifaximin is obtained, while under other experimental conditions other polymorphic crystalline forms of rifaximin is obtained. Moreover it has been found that some parameters, absolutely not disclosed in the above-mentioned patents, like for instance preservation conditions and the relative ambient humidity, have the surprising effect to determine the polymorph form.
The polymorphous forms of rifaximin object of the present patent application were never seen or hypothesized, while thinking that, whichever method was used within the range of the described condition, a sole homogeneous product would always have been obtained, irrespective of crystallizing, drying and preserving conditions.
It has now been found that the formation of α, β and γ forms both depends on the presence of water within the crystallization solvent, on the temperature at which the product is crystallized and on the amount of water present in the product at the end of the drying phase.
Form α, form β and form γ of rifaximin have then been synthesized and they are the object of the invention.
Moreover it has been found that the presence of water in rifaximin in the solid state is reversible, so that water absorption and/or release can take place in time in presence of suitable ambient conditions; consequently rifaximin is susceptible of transition from one form to another, also remaining in the solid state, without need to be again dissolved and crystallized. For instance polymorph α, getting water by hydration up to a content higher than 4.5%, turns into polymorph β, which in its turn, losing water by drying up to a content lower than 4.5%, turns into polymorph α.
These results have a remarkable importance as they determine the conditions of industrial manufacturing of some steps of working which could not be considered critical for the determination of the polymorphism of a product, like for instance the washing of a crystallized product, or the preservation conditions of the end product, or the characteristics of the container in which the product is preserved.
The above-mentioned α, β and γ forms can be advantageously used as pure and homogeneous products in the manufacture of medicinal preparations containing rifaximin.
As already said, the process for manufacturing rifaximin from rifamycin O disclosed and claimed in EP 0161534 is deficient from the point of view of the purification and identification of the product obtained; it shows some limits also from the synthetic point of view as regards, for instance, the very long reaction times, from 16 to 72 hours, not very suitable to an industrial use and moreover because it does not provide for the in situ reduction of rifaximin oxidized that may be formed within the reaction mixture.
Therefore, a further object of the present invention is an improved process for the industrial manufacturing of the α, β and γ forms of rifaximin, herein claimed as products and usable as defined and homogeneous active ingredients in the manufacture of the medicinal preparations containing such active ingredient.